Thoughtful gestures are among the most valued products of human social behavior. They serve to perpetuate kindness, and often exemplify everyday creativity. Giving a gift is a thoughtful gesture, often requiring much thought and creativity to select a gift that will demonstrate effort and thoughtfulness to the recipient. Giving and/or receiving an appropriate, thoughtful gesture after an interaction with another person is one of the ways humans strengthen friendships and express gratitude. Surprising a recipient with an unexpected gift can elicit a strong positive reaction in the recipient and further serve to strengthen a relationship. Such gestures are often used by customer service representatives to improve customer loyalty and/or improve difficult situations, such as a flight cancellation, a defective product, etc.
An example scenario in which a thoughtful gesture may be appropriate is illustrated by the following fictional but plausible story. Emma, a customer-service assistant at a bank, receives a call from Claire, who has lost her credit card while traveling overseas. The conversation begins as a normal discussion of Claire's banking issue, but leads to a childhood memory of Claire's, which reminds Emma of a passage from a favorite book. Emma thinks Claire may appreciate the connection, and Emma considers mentioning this to Claire, but then comes up with what she thinks is a better idea. After Claire's banking problem is resolved and the conversation ends, Emma orders a copy of the book and sends it to Claire as a present, with an explanatory note. Perhaps the present will brighten Claire's mood after having to deal with the lost card issue, and perhaps it will inspire her to do something kind for someone else.
Providing such thoughtful gestures may utilize various types of creativity, knowledge, reasoning, and emotional intelligence, for example, to identify situations in which such gestures are opportune and appropriate for the receiver, and based on the situations that prompt the gestures. Furthermore, the element of surprise may further enhance the positive impact of the gesture.
The recent improvements and proliferation of artificial intelligence-based systems allows organizations to automate certain customer service functions (via chatbots, for example) such that customers have difficulty discerning if they are interacting with a human or a machine, which is an aspect intended to be measured by the famous Turing Test. To further elicit strong positive reactions and loyalty in their customers, an organization may further benefit from automated customer-service systems that can provide an appropriate thoughtful gesture.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved, automated customer-service systems that can provide an appropriate, customer-specific thoughtful gesture. Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to this and other considerations.